The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has specified two Ethernet services that may be used to replace traditional static permanent virtual circuits with Ethernet virtual circuits (EVCs). These two Ethernet services are Carrier Ethernet Private/Virtual Line Service (denoted as ELINE) and Carrier Ethernet Multipoint-to-Multipoint LAN Service (denoted as ELAN), both of which may be offered as private or virtual services where private services are transported via dedicated lines and connections at fixed and predefined wire speeds and virtual services are multiplexed statistically and transported over shared lines and connections.
In general, the ELINE service is a point-to-point service that is transparent to layer-2 protocols and supports scalability and bandwidth management. The ELINE service also supports class-of-service (CoS), VLAN tagging, and other features. For example, two ELINE connectivity services include: (1) Ethernet Private Line (EPL), which is port-based and has dedicated bandwidth; and (2) Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), which is VLAN-based and has shared bandwidth.
In general, the ELAN service is a multipoint-to-multipoint service that allows hosts to be connected and disconnected dynamically, where each ELAN host is given its own bandwidth profile, which specifies its CoS. For example, two ELAN connectivity services include: (1) Ethernet Private LAN (EPLAN), which is port-based and has dedicated bandwidth; and (2) Ethernet Virtual Private LAN (EVPLAN), which is VLAN-based and has shared bandwidth.
Ethernet Path Protection Switching, as specified in the International Telecommunications Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) G.8031 standard, provides an Ethernet path protection switching capability for enabling protection of point-to-point Ethernet paths in Ethernet environments. For example, G.8031 point-to-point (P2P) tunnels may be used to provide fast failover for ELINE services.
Link Aggregation Group (LAG)-like loadsharing solutions are utilized in various types of networks, including Ethernet networks. In some cases, LAG-like loadsharing solutions may be utilized for supporting multipoint ELAN services. For example, LAG-like loadsharing solutions may be utilized for supporting BVPLS ELANs.
Disadvantageously, however, even though both BVPLS ELINE and BVPLS ELAN services may need to be supported within Ethernet networks, no mechanism exists for enabling G.8031 tunnels to co-exist with LAG-like loadsharing solutions within Ethernet networks.